College Park / Logic / February 24, 2023
- Joshua Yoo
- Mar 9, 2023
- 2 min read
The town of College Park, Maryland has such significance to Logic, his ninth and now independent album functions as an ode to the memories, locations, and invaluable friends that originated back in 2011 at the beginnings of his illustrious career. It’s a fitting and grounded venture into classic shades of jazz and soul-infused hip-hop, which although sometimes loses direction, ends up arriving at a lot of neat stops along its journey.
The strong conceptual narrative running throughout the album follows the day of a headliner show at College Park, as Logic interacts with his day 1s Big Lenbo, C Dot Castro and 6ix at the tail ends of multiple tracks. The script is sentimental and immersive, setting the scene and environment for listeners, but as an album experience these segments often break the flow and take up a lot of real estate without much return on information or emotional weight.
The music itself is a different story, where the production not only builds a world of beautifully melancholic and classic shades of rap, but also finds Logic quite in-form lyrically. The cuts that feature more jazz-infused instrumentation fit his focused and dense wordplay like a glove, especially with interesting features, rapped (“Self Medication”) or sung (“Paradise II”), that compliment his artistry well. The more energetic or invigorated tracks can be a bit hit or miss, but there are still exciting posse-cut moments (“Gaithersburg Freestyle”) and bright solo performances (“Lightsabers”) that flash the technical wizardry that many listen to Logic for.
Thus, ‘College Park’ is a little bit more than a trip down memory lane; it’s a good reminder of why Logic has earned himself such a career to look back upon.
Highlight(s): Self-Medication, Paradise II, Lightsabers, Village Slum, Playwright, Come On Down
Lowlight(s): Highlife, Cruisin’ Through the Universe, Insipio
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